Foster named facility chief at Glacier Park

Glacier National Park has hired from within, naming Jim Foster its new chief of facilities management.

Foster began his Park Service career with Glacier in 2003 as the Park engineer and became the deputy chief of facility management in 2008 under John Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick transferred to the Army Corps of Engineers in Jacksonville, Fla., last year, and Foster was named acting chief.

The position is significant in Glacier as it oversees all major construction and infrastructure projects in the Park, including the reconstruction of the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Foster, in an interview Monday, said he’s looking forward to the job and its host of challenges. He also gave Kilpatrick credit for getting the Sun Road project and the transit system up and running.

“John made a huge contribution,” Foster said. “Now I have to make sure it doesn’t derail.”

Foster is up to the challenge. He served more than 25 years in the Army National Guard, including commanding a field artillery firing battery for 26 months overlapping the Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations in Kuwait. He became a lieutenant colonel in January 1999 and retired from military service in November, 2004.

Prior to Glacier, Foster was the department manager and lead design engineer with Missionary TECH Engineering in Longview, Texas.

He is also an avid mountain climber. Hanging on his office wall is a map of Glacier peppered with push pins — each pin marks a peak he’s summitted.

But right now his focus is on getting projects done in the Park and finding money sources to get the work completed. One potential big boost for Glacier is President Obama’s economic recovery package. The House passed a bill earlier this month that provides anywhere from $1.5 billion to $2 billion for the Park Service.

But the bill still has to weave its way through the Senate and it has no earmarks, per se. Even so, if the stars align for Glacier the bill could mean enough funding to virtually complete reconstruction of the alpine section of the Sun Road.

The plan right now is to begin work from Logan Pass down to Big Bend late this summer — probably after Labor Day. Funding for that stage is already provided through a massive federal transportation bill that passed in 2005.

The economic recovery funds, if they come through, would pay for reconstruction of the road from

Logan Pass to Siyeh Bend.

To complete the road project, the Park would then look for funds in the upcoming transportation bill.

But the Sun Road isn’t the only project that could benefit from economic recovery funds, Foster notes. There’s still work that needs to be done on the Many Glacier Hotel, including wiring, fire protection and seismic stabilization. Sewer systems in Many Glacier also need upgrades, the Inside North Fork Road needs work and employee housing in the Park dates back to 1966 and earlier and is in rough shape.

The challenge, Foster notes, is to get work done with less money.

Originally from Massachusetts, Foster holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado, Denver, and is a registered professional engineer in Arizona, Colorado and Montana. He’s an elder at Whitefish Christian Missionary Alliance Church and treasurer of the

Glacier Mountaineering Society.

He lives in Whitefish with his wife, Deborah, who works for the U.S. Postal Service in Kalispell.

They have three grown children: Tara, who is married to Amit Sood of Kinugasa, Japan; Saryna of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; and Jimmy, who lives in Bigfork. They also have two grandchildren: Anthony, 2, and Rohan, eight months.